Of Cherry Stems and Strawberry Starburst
by AceralRayneRaith
Summary: It started out innocently enough  or so the always-oblivious female thought .  What harm could rise from tying knots and unwrapping things, after all?


**An idea that struck me because it's just so fucking hilarious (of course, all of my ideas are fucking hilarious at midnight… at least to myself).**

**I have no idea if they have Starburst candies in Japan. I'll go ask Matthew. Oh wait… he's probably asleep.**

**Scratch that.**

**Well, for the purpose of this story, the Japanese do, indeed, know the wonders of the juicy chews.**

**Rating: K. (Come on. Just handle kissing like adults, ya'll.)**

**Dedicated to: Kitty-chan. For everybody else that left a review, I'm so glad that you guys were so willing to open up, and you all had **_**great**_** stories. I just think that having a father walk in on a bunch of girls eating pie in their underwear kinda takes the cake. That just causes even me to blush. But everybody had really awesome/embarrassing/funny stories; ya'll are the best.**

**Summary: It started out innocently enough (or so the always-oblivious female thought). What harm could rise from tying knots and unwrapping things, after all?**

* * *

She really wasn't sure why she was now stuck with a cherry stem in her mouth, but, in the only the way that Haruhi could, she dutifully twisted it around her tongue, manipulating the thin, pliable stalk whilst pressing it against the insides of her mouth and her cheeks.

It had started off not nearly as innocent as it should have been though, of that she was sure.

The twins had come in, sporting a huge jar of maraschino cherries, a gargantuan bag of Starburst chews, and nearly-identical, massive smiles that had stretched from one rich boy ear to the other.

"Haruhiiiiiii," they had chanted simultaneously, rushing to the girl's side and slinging arms (laden with packages) around her slim shoulders.

Her eyebrow had twitched in acknowledgement, but her mahogany gaze never deviated from the tome in her lap. She'd reached the point of blocking every single annoying antic of the Host Club out while studying, sinking into a deadened space where their supplications and pleas fell onto deaf ears, a place where there were words and her brain absorbing them.

"Mother! The twins are harassing our daughter," the blond had trilled, screaming out his displeasure in the cool one's ear. Kyoya had shouldered Tamaki off roughly and continued to pitter on with his laptop and note-taking.

Tamaki, sniveling, had gone to plead his case to an uncaring Haruhi, only to be shrugged off with the carefully-dropped, heavily-loaded, "Senpai, I have a test this week. If I fail, I lose my scholarship, and I leave Ouran, effectively quitting the Host Club, and it would be your entire fault."

And that was when Hikaru and Kaoru had struck, choosing the very moment when Tamaki was at his lowest and supplying the blond with more fodder for his Inner Mind Theatre with the coy, demurred, identical purr of: "Tono, you know what they say about cherry stems and Starburst, right?"

Further explanation had been expounded: the ultimate judge of kissing prowess, short of smooching another, was to have the ability of unwrapping a Starburst chew with one's tongue or tying a knot in a cherry stem.

Haruhi had lowered her book, well-aware that resistance was absolutely futile, and sighed shortly as all of her good intentions paved her road further towards Hell.

Her name had been abruptly called, and she had managed to hide a roll of her pretty eyes behind her bangs.

"Yes?" she'd answered, the rough note in her voice lost on all ears save three pairs.

"You'll go first," the twins had assured, smiling demonically, "as the true Princess of the Host Club."

"I really don't see a point to this. This is stupidity personified; there's no way that, by being able to unwrap things and tie things, a person can tell if they're going to be good at kissing. It isn't something that you should mess with either," she'd warned lowly.

It was only by Hunny's watering, chocolate eyes that the boys were able to get Haruhi to agree.

With reverence (that was totally lost on the girl) she had been handed a long, pliable stem while the red fruit was plopped atop one of Hunny-senpai's cakes.

**[I'm about to lay some serious wisdom down on you guys. This is how I do it, and it generally works… unless you get a stupidly stubborn Starburst or a messed up cherry stem.]**

Haruhi quickly bent the stem in half around her tongue, teasing the ends with her teeth until they crossed in a slight V-shape.

She flickered deftly at the stem, pushing one end through the small circle made and using pearly dentition to pull the ends swiftly until a tight knot came into being.

No sooner had she delivered the successfully-knotted stem to her palm, somebody, with quaking fingers, pressed a candy, fully wrapped, past her lips.

She wanted to sigh, but the eyes fixated on her person compelled her to accomplish this juvenile trick, so she set about doing as such.

She pressed her tongue against the wrapper until it flipped itself upright, the bottom triangular folds facing down, and hooked one around a canine. Pulling it free, she quickly set about doing so to the other side, and, once accomplished, flicked at the rectangular bar of paper.

Haruhi's jaw worked a couple of times in front of the boys before she finally reached up and pulled forth a single, flat, slightly damp sheet of pink paper.

Brains nearly exploded with implications, but the oblivious girl tossed the trash onto the table and set about, once more, to studying.

Quickly wishing to reciprocate (and prove their worth as Hosts (and the ultimate pleasers of women worldwide)), the boys launched themselves on the chews and maraschino cherries.

Kyoya only did so when faced with Tamaki's pleading violet eyes and (nearly) violent whines of, "Mother! You _have_ to!"

Hunny was the one who pressed Mori into doing so as well, and then happily set about the task, even going so far as to offer his rabbit the treats as well.

Failure ran rampant.

Hunny handled it the best, pulling the stem from his mouth with a puzzled expression, a shrug of the shoulders, and a happy grin; the candy, of course, had never been intentioned for anything other than a saccharine treat for the boy.

Hikaru pouted when his attempts led to nothing, which led to Kaoru distracting him with a brand-new 'Brotherly Love Scene', and all was quickly forgotten.

Kyoya shrugged, having given it a shot, but proving himself unable to muster the will to care as it failed to pertain to the business deal he was negotiating.

Tamaki took it the worst, lamenting, for all and any who didn't wish to hear, the fact that his stem was too short and his candy too wrapped. He pled to the unresponsive ear of Haruhi to understand that, 'Daddy was, indeed, a good kisser, and that those vile doppelgangers had conjured a scheme to humiliate the King as part of their odorous, malevolent plot of villainy.'

Hunny was the only person, aside from the studious Natural, who noticed to neatly-knotted cherry stem and carefully-undone wrapping that lay before Mori.

"Takashi," the cousin whispered to the other, who responded by tilting his head towards the other. "Did you do that?"

"Ah."

"Okay! That's great… let's go eat some cake!"

"Teeth," the tall one reminded the other in a gentle reproach, and the littlest one smiled, nodded, and chatted away to the table set aside for confectionary goods.

Later, as the sun set upon the grounds of Ouran, and Kyoya deemed it a reasonable enough time to send the others home, the only female stayed behind to pack her bags.

After being smothered and glomped in goodbyes, the girl moved with an unhurried grace, failing to note the two seniors still present.

She had nearly sky-rocketed when Mori came up behind her, as she bent over her school bag, and placed a large hand upon her head.

"Mori-senpai, you scared me," she admonished lightly, placing a hand to her chest as she whirled to face the boy.

He smiled kindly down at the small female and then bent himself double, abruptly fusing his lips to the girl's in a sweet promise.

Hunny managed to plow through two more cakes before the two separated, gasping and panting for all they were worth.

Both were pink-cheeked, red-lipped, and decked out in telltale signs of having engaged in one helluva make-out session.

Hunny cleaned himself off, collected his cousin to take him home (where the gentle giant would later nap the day away) and, before leaving, leaned to his stuffed rabbit to give him a conspirational whisper of: "Guess what they say is true, huh, Usa-chan?"

* * *

**Hahahaha! Yeah, there really was no point to that mess, other than the fact that I needed to sing out the accolades of the awesome kissing-ness of Takashi. And that a sleepy Mori is a Mori that I would definitely **_**love**_** to meet (yep, if you didn't catch that, Takashi was indeed tired).**

**It's **_**always **_**the quiet ones.**

**Mmkay… so, for this one, as inspiration: **_**Tell me of your first kiss. And if you haven't ever been kissed, then, how about you tell me what you would like your kiss to be like (I promise it never turns out the way you plan, but it's still fun to dream).**_

**I gave my (unofficial—because my friends **_**swear**_** it doesn't count until you're at **_**least**_** in seventh grade/twelve years old) first kiss up when I was in first grade. The boys in my school liked to amuse themselves at recess by chasing the girl and pinning them to the chain-link fence—I was not what you could call a "girly girl" in my youth. In fact, I thought I was a dude, and yet, I was not saved from the torture. Instead, a boy decided to be funny and tackled me, dragging me, kicking and screaming, to the fence where I was forcibly restrained by four other boys. The kid then proceeded to taunt me; it was simple, really, my choice. I just pecked him. He cried. I got a citation (like a demerit, I guess). My father still swears, to this day, that he's never been more proud of me.**

**Now my first**_** official**_** kiss, which does not nearly have a funny enough story, happened when I was fourteen… to my then-"boyfriend". It was unpleasantly wet and totally not my idea. Afterwards, I had to hide my grimace as the dude pulled away, blushing, and thanked me (though he totally had just leaned in and taken it). I nodded, ambiguously, and walked on—we broke up not a week later.**

**Since then, I've had my fair share of other boys who actually had some idea of what they were doing, thus, much more enjoyable. In fact, my friends consider me to be a kissing connoisseur and come to me for advice; it's great. **

'**Kay! That's kinda my whole kissing history; we're not delving any deeper today, guys.**

**Leave a review! OH! And **_**let me know what you guys think of my doing a multi-chaptered, supernatural, Ouran fic. Good idea? Awful one? Leave it in the review.**_

**Much love and writing,**

**Ace**


End file.
